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Selecting a note (N) in one window (A) fills that window's Text Pane and also the Text Pane of the previously selected window (B). It only does this for the first note clicked, so selecting other notes in (A) will not update the Text Pane of (B), which is stuck displaying (N). If you restore the original Text Pane contents in (B), that selection also fills the Text Pane of (A).

Apparently this isn't a bug. I'm guessing it's a feature meant to encourage the use of a single Text Pane.

My workaround, which is a bit distracting, has been to make a dummy window in the corner. I select one of its notes before selecting a note in any other window. This prevents my "working" windows' Text Panes from being unintentionally replaced. The most obvious workaround would be to hit CMD-X and make a separate window for notes whose contents I want to keep visible, but then if I want to access the note's attributes I need to hunt for the note (icon) in another window!

I'm writing to ask how other users are handling or even exploiting this "tandem Text Pane filling" feature in their UX.

However, the selection is not actually shared among all windows, just the two most recent:

Given that I’ve touched windows (A), (B), and (C) in that order, selecting (N1) in (C) only places N1-text in the Text Panes of (C) and (B). If I then select a different note (N2) in (C), (C) will then show N2-text but (B) still shows N1-text—and (A) still shows what it’s been showing all along. At this point, all three are now detached and I can safely edit text in (B) while also browsing the contents of (C) and (A).

It can be confusing:

Say (N1) is visible as icon in (A)’s Outline View. I select it and edit it’s text in the Text Pane of (B). After some time this will feel like I am editing a note from (B)’s Outline View, but I am not. If I then change the Outline View of (A) so that (N1) as icon is no longer in view, I’ll be editing a note whose icon is no longer in view. Then I’m all like, “This note I am editing. Where is it located again?”

It’s inconvenient:

Notes that display together often belong together. I want to display one group of notes in (A) and another in (B). To do this, I’ll have to make both windows skinny and View Only and then set-up a cascade of CMD-X tear-off Text Windows to the right of each. Wouldn’t it be less work if (A) and (B) showed their own notes?

My obsession with completeness and detail made the point of my post invisible. All I was trying to do was beg you to allow multiple Text Panes to show multiple notes instead of the same one.

I have the screen nicely divided among three windows—A, B, and C—each full of tabs. The tabs in each window are related. Each window has its own Text Pane showing.

It is very rare that I want a distraction free writing environment with only a single note's text displayed. Despite having meticulously divided my screen space, TB6 requires me to hit CMD-OPT-X any time I want a text view to perdure. This makes a new window on top of my meticulous setup. Then I have to resize and re-position that window, and then the others to avoid overlap, which takes times and loses train of thought. Imagine how nice it would be to click in window B and have B's Text Pane show the contents of that note while leaving A's Text Pane (which I'm working in and NEED) undisturbed? Instead, I have to hit CMD-OPT-X every time I need to look at something else. If not, the stuff in the Text Pane I'm working in will be wiped out.

I know the purpose is to keep things uncluttered, but the promise that checking text in another window will wipe out what I'm reading forces me do a CMD-OPT-X … and make things more cluttered than ever. In TB6, users cannot have two Text Panes unless they display the same note. This forces us to make an empty additional space as a place to throw our various CMD-OPT-X windows.

Please, Mark B., let each window have its own Text Pane. Also, if windows A, B, and C have Text Panes, how is showing the same note in all three anything but redundant? Or at least add a non-redundancy option in the Preferences.

Can we take a vote? Am I the only one who uses multiple windows? Or who sets them up perfectly for comparative viewing? As things are, users have to make space, resize, and relocate every time they want a text view to perdure.

I have to say I agree with Scott -- I don't understand the benefits of every window sharing the same text content and selection. If I've opened a new window, it's usually (actually, almost always) because I want a different view on the data so why would I want to have the same text visible in both windows? I can't imagine many circumstances in which it is useful to see this, rather than text following selection separately in each window.

I'm sure I'm missing something, but at the moment I really can't see the benefit and unfortunately the disadvantages are noticed every day.

Of course, there may be a technical reason, rather than a design decision, and that's fair enough.